Not Frantic Yet

Normally nothing would make me happier than a large plate full of tater tots, but I had heard rumors that Whole Foods had waffle fries. Apparently, that would be the Whole Foods in Long Island only, unless there’s hope for the Bowery location. I had to have instant something, though, so I went for tater tots instead. On day 1 of Christmas Crafting for the Family they were a bit of a let down, but they weren’t supposed to be my prime focus. My grandmother’s lap quilt was:

I didn’t have the time to spare to move the pieced bits off of my bed, so yes . . . I slept on my grandmother’s quilt. Fortunately, this is not one of the evenings I slept on a sewing needle. Or a crochet hook. Or scissors. Or knitting needles. Clearly, I need to stop crafting in bed.

I got quite a bit done. Then, come Sunday, I hit a bit of a wall. Apparently, I no longer wanted to make a quilt. I wanted to make a die. As a result, I kept pinning bits of my quilt into a hexahedron shape and then sewing it together. Then I’d rip it out, without a seam ripper because I must admit I still haven’t picked one up. Then I’d say, I have to be careful. I must check this before I’d sew. And then I’d check it and it would look a little wonky, which I’d blame on the pins. Then I’d sew . . . repeat six times. At least I managed to make it all the way through Charlie and the Chocolate Factory before I finally stopped doing this. Sadly, this means that I didn’t manage to piece together the entirety of the front side of my grandma’s quilt over the weekend, but it was a valiant effort.

On Monday morning, it is wrinkled, unfinished and mocking me.

On some levels, I almost wish I’d decided to just do a patchwork throw instead, but the hexagons are on such a large scale that I really think it’s going to need the quilted stitches to balance it out. As I won’t see my grandmother until Christmas Day, however, I realized I really ought to start on at least one of my mother’s presents, especially as she’s usually so excited to see me when I visit that I’m lucky if I get to use the bathroom by myself.

It’s actually quite a few rows beyond here, but I barely have time to write this post, much less take another picture.

I decided that crocheting a throw for my mother instead of knitting it might make me want to kill myself a little less because I’m at the stage that I still find beginning crochet stitches interesting. Now is not the time to ask me about her slippers or her cardi I was contemplating on Friday. Those might still be coming, but I’m setting my aspirations high. I think I thrive off of crafting pressure. At least, until the deadline is past. Then the gifts have a way of languishing in the bottom of a WIP bag for a few years before I half-heartedly finish them. For holidays, birthdays, etc., I really should just give people picture books. They will all have one title: This is What I Intended to Finish for You but Never Will.

Cranberry Pistachio Cookies. I will make these work yet. My mother doesn’t know yet, but I’m going to force her to bake and make candy with me in California on Sunday.

Perhaps if I hadn’t spent a couple hours on Saturday botching up the cookies I planned to take to the cookie exchange party I might have gotten a little further. The party was nice. Nothing says holidays like overfilling yourself with sugar, carbs and tea. Sadly, either my recipe is not quite right or, in a hurry, I overestimated the Earth Balance just a touch. These came out a little flatter than I wanted but, even worse, they were a little too salty. I really, really wish EB came unsalted, too. I just don’t buy that the shortening would be quite right. But I’ll get these and my pomegranate chocolate chip cookies (not pictured) working by Christmas.

Brunch is the best meal of the day, especially if potatoes and creamy sauces are involved.

I justified cooking a nice meal for brunch because it is two meals in one. Loads of vegan cookbooks have fake omelet recipes (don’t ask me to name one now as I’m speaking on a reduced sleep schedule) that tend to consist of dredging the tofu in something and marinading it and whatnot. I couldn’t be bothered to remember which cookbooks those might be, though, so I cobbled together something of my own. Let’s just say if you slice tofu really thin and dredge it in equal parts cornstarch and nutritional yeast with added black pepper and black salt (the crucial element) with a little bit of turmeric for color and then you fry it up quickly in a little bit of canola oil, it might be one of the loveliest things you’ve eaten in a while. Or at least I thought it was, alongside some beer (sorghum-based) and caper home fries and a nice Caesar salad. (I’m happy to report that the Veganomicon Caesar dressing has wonderful staying power.)

This is why I went for a lazy dinner many hours later.

I may have a spring roll fetish although I’m not crazy about the tiny wraps.  Curse Whole Foods for running out of the full-sized ones.

I whipped up a batch of my 30-second peanut sauce to go with these cabbage/butternut squash cranberry rolls. Disappointingly, my butternut squash had gone off since I bought it on Friday so there wasn’t much that I could salvage. But these were good and kept me from undergoing a big production in the kitchen for dinner. I saved that for the saltwater taffy that failed me yet again.

Definitely hard to see, but on Sunday night sugar became my enemy.

This time I watched the thermometer like a hawk. I pulled the sugar off at the right time, but it also hardened to an unpullable state before I could work with it. I tried breaking it up a little bit and was rewarded with a nice little abrasion (it looks worse now that it’s healing). I haven’t given up on saltwater taffy, yet, but I’m definitely done with this recipe. It is not my friend.